To the moon of my dreams, Dark Lady, I write this diary. Praying, that it somehow reaches you, my Queen.

8th of Nightal, year xxxx

As was your guidance, I have arrived to the realms of trinity and enlisted myself in the local guard forces. Quality of local men, as expected, is quite low. Apparently, there was some form of war recently, so city is in restoration period right now. I see the wisdom of your guidance here, Milady, with local cadres lacking, and city rebuilding, there would be plenty of opportunities to rise in ranks.

Right now, my crew consists of lawless mercenary and backwoods bumpkin ranger. I know, I know, it sounds bad, but I would surely make it work.

Mercenary have to be tamed, yes, probably would need to rough him up at some point, but, for now, he seems to generally obey me. On the other hand, he seems to do well with common folk. Would be useful in this way.

Ranger, even if unsophisticated, seems to be just the right guy for me. Quiet, does what I tell him to do. Perfect pawn, really. One difficulty, I think, would be making him understand complex tasks.

I wouldnt dare to tire you with small details, but I feel, that you would like to know of general summary of my daily progress.

Today, we were helping the noble lady find her stolen necklace. Simple task, really, criminal was so disfigured, that only blind man wouldnt recognise him by description. Speaking of blindness...Your blessing seems to affect me in weird ways, Milady, my hand, where you touched it, have been itching for days, and my vision seemed to go in and out of focus all day, I had to rely on the ranger to recognise the criminal for me. Im not complaining, my Queen, please dont be angry, but I hope everything is going as planned.

I apprehended the criminal, ignoring the mumbling, of my crew, of course, Imagine it, they wanted to let him go after he returned the necklace! As I mentioned before, quality of the local men is horrible.

In the end, criminal received his punishment, and necklace has been returned to the Lady Clavis. She invited us to the tea, and, imagine my shock, my crew actually knew their place and let me go with her alone! What a lucky day! Not only did I manage to show my great abilities to the captain, but I also secured friendship with local nobility!

At this rate, I might even rise above my grandfather one day! My report to you ends here, my Queen.

Day started as normal, captain was briefing us about the todays work. We have been promoted a little. Apparently, we now "deserve" to patrol the nice part of town, aka market square. Small thing, yes, but it means I gained more trust with the guy. Traders are not your common thugs I had to deal with in slums, scare off the traders, and town loses its lifeblood. It means that he trusts me to deal with more delicate jobs.

Patrol was not very notable, at first, we were dealing with some drunk guy at north gates.

Mercenary, Sam I would call him, did a very good job with the guy. Really, have a talent talking with commoners, that Sam. When I was about to kick the drunk, he managed to solve the problem peacefully. Maybe, when I get to power, Ill even keep him around, he would do perfectly, when Ill need to calm a peasants revolt down or smth of the like.

But later, we spotted a shady duo past the gates, they were talking about something under the tree. When we got closer, they spotted us, and one of the guys whispered to another, that they dont want to talk near the guards. That felt fishy to me, so I stopped them. One word lead to another, and we had to subdue the suspects. Sadly, only one of them survived the fight, and it was the useless one. He knew nothing, except about the letter he was delivering to the other one. I made sure he knew nothing, ofc, the guy was cowering in fear.

The letter, thought, it was more interesting, something about the shipment arriving and waiting for him at the "usual" spot. I assumed that shipment would probably be arriving by the nearby river, and I was right. I found tracks of the heavy cart, leading, from riverside to the city. Sadly, tracks ended at the gates to the slums, but letter had some other clues on it, wouldnt want to tire you with small details on how we went about discovering said clues, but in the end, letter led us to the sewers.

Sewers were full of bandit scum. Rats, I would call them. I think I killed about a dozen, when we finally arrived to the leaders. Cowards were cowering near the boxes, behind an expensive trap. Taunted them to come to us and easily killed both. They were even kind enough to disarm the trap for me. Boxes were full of swords and other edged weapons. Rats were trying to arm themselves it seems. Not wasting any time, we decided to hurry and bring said weapons to the captain, we only managed to carry 3 out of 6 boxes.

Long story short, captain commended us for our actions and send others to collect the rest of the weapons. A bit to late, boxes were already gone by the time they arrived. Something big is happening in this city, and Im glad, that I am in the middle of all of this.

We also completed another job for a noble today. Had to recover a debt from a certain woman, who didnt want to pay him back. She basically stole those money and never intended to give them back. Already used it to send her child somewhere far away, to the uncle. All the way to the captain, I was thinking of an excuse, why we werent able to recover the gold, when the ranger, Tristan, surprised us all and paid for her from his own pocket! Lied, that we actually found money on her, and gave it to the noble, who she was indebted to. Well, completed mission is alot better for me and my crew reputation, so I havent said anything. Debt paid is debt paid, no matter from which pocket it came from. Especially if said pocket is not mine.

In the end, we did much more in the day, than most guard do in the month. I say, day was well spent, and my reputation is sure to rise in the city. We might even get a new recruit in my crew! Some guy tagged along with us today, said he was working on guarding caravans in the north or smth of the like. Didnt have much time to pay him to much attention thought, he wasnt much use today, but to be fair, mission was a breeze anyway. At least he wears proper armor and shield on him. We would finally be looking more like a proper force now. And not just one knight and two tag-alongs.

On the matter of your Blessing, milady. In the middle of todays mission, my hand finally stopped itching, and I think my eyes are better, than they have ever been. If I hadnt spotted that trap, everything could have turned up way worse, than it did. I can surely say, that I feel your support every day, and will work hard to prove, that I am well worth your favour, my Queen!

Last edited by Sergoros on Sun Dec 23, 2018 8:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

After my who village was destroyed and my family slaughtered by Cain's forces, I wandered. Not so much physically, but my mind wandered as I tried to understand what had happened. Tried to come to grips with losing my wife and children. Tried to see the reason why everyone I know was butchered like livestock. Where are my answers... Where are my answers! WHERE!

*Sigh* Where indeed. If Trinity had been more prepared, if Trinity had better guards and tougher soldiers, if Trinity had better leaders maybe things would have been different! Maybe.. maybe. Yes! YES! I will do it. I have no place to go, so I may as well go to the city and join the ranks of defenders. I will show them! I will kill every green-skin I see! I will make the defenders tougher and smarter and bring them together and be the best trained troop we can be!

Rain.. it's raining again. How fitting. Rain will wash away all the stink and filth and disgust I feel. The rain will clean this place as I shall clean up this place. I have volunteered to help the city guards with tasks and such that they're too busy to do. Apparently some others have the same idea as I have had. I was joined by two other likewise souls I believe.

The first of these is a... bard? I think he's a bard? Seems like one as he talks a lot. I mean... a LOT. So long as the bard doesn't chew my ear off and give me headaches, I think that we'll get along fine enough. And the second fellow is wearing some sort of armor and seems fairly religious, yet acts really annoying like some tough thug. Yes, the Tin-Man is what I'll call him. If he only had a heart.

Our first task... help a noble women find her lost or stolen necklace. Really? I mean... really? With the state that everything is in and they want us to do this? Whatever for the greater good, right? *sigh* So, we set off on our task. The description of the man that took the necklace couldn't be real. No one is THAT ugly after all. We talked at the local inn, found where the rogue was hiding at, and paid him a visit. Oddly, all went well. Much better than expected. He had the necklace on him. He was also super super ugly. I mean.. Ugly! Ahem...

Now that we retrieved the necklace, the bard and I thought we should just let the ugly guy go, as I think he learned his lesson that actions, or inaction, will have reactions in everything that you do. Ah, but the Tin-Can-Man had other ideas. He kinda roughed up the guy a bit and brought him back to the captain. Probably looking for some reward. It was a petty crime so I think the captain just dismissed him? Otherwise he'll probably sit in jail for a few days at the most. The captain has bigger things to worry about.

Thus completing our task we headed to the inn, well.... at least the bard and I did. The Tin Can went to have tea with the noble lady after collecting our payment from her. Tea? Really? Bah, who would of thought that he's some boot-licker? Oh well. I hope he doesn't let all this go to his head. I guess only time will tell.

Jenela,Forgive my poor handwriting. My mother said I had the brains for reading and writing, but it would never make up for my having no talent for any Art. I hope that in this case she is wrong and writing proves useful.I have found promising work in the city after your father ended our contract. I understand that what he respects most is coin. I will seek coin first before I try to see you.I met with some people doing the same work who know much more about this city than I do. I think one is a nobleman. Maybe I should look for his advice. On that long caravan trip here you were the only person who treated me or Tregg Half-orcish with any kindness, and I would like to tell you how much that means to me. It seems to me that some people respond to coin before steel. I hope your father responds to coin. (Much messier handwriting) I have noted this man as your father's servant and I think I have convinced him that it is in his best interest to deliver this in confidence.

Good evening, my dear Queen, on this 6-th day of the new year, your servant has managed to destroy a whole fort, full of bandits and with an ogre as a leader, to top it off.

It all started as a new mission from the captain. We were supposed to investigate the new gang of bandits that were calling themselves dowager's sons. Apparently they were the ones who smuggled 6 boxes of weapons into the city. From whatever information we have gathered, Dowagers were in conflict with most of the city gangs, swiftly taking their territory for themselves. This led us to another gang of bandits, calling themselves Mutts. They seem to be next in the line, so talking with them might be a good idea to get more information on the dowagers.

Sadly, mutts happened to be very bad talkers. Ofc, having multiple stab wounds in the chest doesnt exactly improve conversation abilities of the people. But, to be fair, we have told them to put down their weapons and stop resisting. Stab wounds was mostly the reason of their inability to obey simple commands. Damn bandits. One of them was even half ogre! Can't believe they allow beasts like this into the city! Lucky us, said half ogre had a letter on him, which said, that dowagers plan to assault one of the Mutts forts. We also found a map to the said fort on him too.

After taking a hour of rest, beast managed to hurt us quite bad, we went to the Mutts fort.

Knowing that assaulting fort full of bandits is very likely to end in death, I decided to be cautious and told our ranger, Tristan, to scout for us first. You know, to see if we can find some vulnerabilities and other ways to improve our chances on this task.

.........Tristan sneaked behind the first wall, few seconds passed...and he ran back as fast as he could, bandit arrows flying after him. Brilliant! I probably should have known better, than to rely on some farmer boy to do scouting for us.

Using fort walls as a cover, we managed to somehow kill all of the bandits that went after Tristan. As I was thinking of our next step to get out of this disadvantageous situation, Sam, the mercenary, had a brilliant idea, he peeked into the main camp and started screaming taunts to the remaining gang of bandits, something about their mothers I think, dont really remember.

Sure, thats the plan. Throw away whatever chance at surprise we had remaining, bandits started talking about calling reinforcements...

With no other choice left, I had to lead the assault on the full camp of bandits, mind you, soaking most of their blows too. From what I have seen from our previous encounters, my crew dont seem to be very capable of surviving in prolonged fights. Luckily, 3 light potions later, I managed to soak just enough blows to tip our chances from abysmally low to "probably can beat those guys". Sadly, thats when one of the mutts managed to land a lucky sneak attack, shortly forcing me to black out, until fight was over and the rest of the crew picked me up.

2 more light potions later and finding 2 more light potions among bandit bodies, we somehow managed to prepare ourselves for the next step, entering the main building, where, supposedly, bandit leader would be.

I told the crew, that This time I want to do it quiet, I was reeeeally specific about it, especially to Sam. I made the point, that stealth and loud taunting has a very little in common. I think there is a chance, that he even understood me.

Apparently, wooden walls werent thick enough to drown out clangs of metal on metal, and screams of dying bandits. About 5 bandits were already expecting us on the entrance. Luckily, they probably underestimated the danger, so they didnt call for reinforcements or their boss. We managed to deal with them quickly enough. And thats where scales has shifted and luck was back in my favour again. Silently moving through the corridors, I heard the sounds behind one of the doors. Fools thought to ambush us! Luckily, we ambushed ambushers instead, quickly opening the door, making a few lucky stabs and then cleverly taking cover behind the walls, forcing their archers and wizard to come out and deal with us in melee, which, as you might have guessed wasnt a good idea on their part. We basically has repeated the same strategy in the final room, quickly cutting off most of the leaders henchmen, forcing him to fight four of us alone. Leader, as I have spoiled from the start, happened to be, smarter than ordinary, ogre, after I cursed him, with the weight of the curse on his shoulders, we were able to easily subdue the beast.

Funny, how the one and only one smart person among the whole gang, happened to be the ogre. None of the other bandits had a faintest thought of giving up. Maybe being nearly retarded is a requirement to join mutts gang. With an ogre as a leader, I wouldnt be surprised, really.

Anyway, ogre has told us everything he knows about Dowagers, how they are basically not a gang at all. They dont get their weapons from common smugglers thiefs would use. They dont recruit in trinity or nearby lands. And, as we learned a bit later, the weapons they use, is on entirely different level to normal gangs. As promised, as a reward for helping us, I let the beast go. Poor sod didnt realise that he was as good as dead anyway, with my curse on his shoulders, he was destined to die soon anyway....way to soon, as we surprisingly realised.

Poor ogre didnt even manage to make a 3 dozen steps. About 20 seconds passed and we heard sounds of fighting back in the corridor, when we arrived to the source of the sound...we found a poor ogre with about 10 arrows sticking out of him, and no dowager in sight. Smart rats managed to quietly finish the last mutt and leave, only arrows being a proof of them being here at all. And might I say....those arrows are expensive! No mere thug would use such an arrow. Unless you hunt for some expensive pray, you would always work at a loss with those arrows. And yet...here they are, sticking from a poor ogre.

Captain was shocked at our valour. I can understand him. Cleansing the whole fort of bandits with just four of us? This is not a job for any normal guard. At this rate, he would have no other choice, but to give us the promotion we deserve!

On the progress of your blessing, Milady, I seem to be getting stronger! I always hated tower shields in the past, with them being all to heavy, I wasnt able to fight at all. But now? They dont feel like a burden at all! I even thrown most of my money at the blacksmith and ordered an enchanted tower shield for myself! On the other hand, I think my left arm is glinting under the light of the candle, I dont think human skin should be doing that?

19-th day of Hammer, yeah xxxx+1Report of Dorian Redcliffe to the captain Gorges.

After receiving the mission we immediately began the preparations. We bought blunt weapons, as advised, and disguised ourselves as criminals. After discussing the delicate matter with captain Aarten, we decided to check thief hideout in the sewers, people there might have the right connections to get us to the dowagers.

From the start, I decided to use Sams natural talent of making friends with people of even the lowest upbringing. In essence, I let him do the talking, and, as I predicted, Sam quickly became friends with lowly criminals, they trusted us just enough to hire us to secure their trade deal with dowagers.

Later this day, we have arrived to the farms, where trade was supposed to happen. Apparently, criminals were planning to sell explosives to the dowagers, but, confirming our previous info on dowagers, they never buy from common thief suppliers. Dowagers never planned to trade, they just used it as an excuse to kill more of their competition. Dowagers attacked and we had to fight them too.

Luckily, this is exactly what we wanted, we used this fight as an opportunity to capture one of the dowagers. Sadly, we didnt exactly had enough stamina remaining to deal with our "employers", so we had to keep appearances and allow them to take explosives back. Securing the dowager is more important, after all. The guy is tied up and left in your care captain. Hope you can get all we need to know about dowagers from him.

*Scribed in the elegant script of Infernal, and left on the dining table of her shared hovel in the poor quarter*

Belovéd sister.

I hope this day find you in good health? I found the herbs you left me for my cough on my bedroll. Thankyou, it was most thoughtful of you. Just got in from my first day of volunteer work, and it was... interesting. The citizens on patrol working with the city watch I was assigned to are an eclectic bunch but... well... they lack even your basic knowledge of intricate mechanical and oft poisoned devices which means I may ask you for a few basic pointers when we next meet up.

One of them is a bit... grumpy and agressive so I'll keep my distance, but the big man with the big shield seemed nice. I like him! He bought me two pies! I wrapped your halves up and put them inside your bedroll, so the rats dont get to them. My group has been tasked with looking for some mercneary thieves or smugglers who aparently smuggled in some weapons. Nothing as dangerous as you're doing with that adventurer Bran Kross, so don't worry about me. The church fitted me with my very own chain shirt just in case, and I've been practicing with the sling like our foster father taught us and told us to do every day. We had a hard time finding the man responsible for arranging the mercenary company's contracts but turns out that is because he wasn't a man... he was a woman, or rather both. I'm not sure what he is but he isnt like us, or like father. Some sort of shapeshifter. Its pretty late, as I was up all night tailing him-her so I'm off to bed soon. I may be out in the morning when you get back.

I bought a new dress with my first week's pay, and got you a matching one in black like you like. They have pretty lacy bits, and lovely embroidery. From Sally's of course. Even the man-woman we caught knew how good her work was! I look forward to seeing you in the orphanage shrine on Safeday, don't forget to pack those toys we fixed up including that enchanted golem-doll you made for Bethany. She's still worn out from sewer plague.

2-nd day of Alturiak. Year xxxx+1.Letter from Dorian Redcliffe to the captain Gorges.

Bad news captain, the mission, that you has given us, has been sabotaged.

Mission was almost good as done, we had the leader of the monsters in our grasp, alone, and without his army, but, sadly, only me and Gron had the heart to do the job. Cowards, Sam and Tristan, were to intimidated by the troll to act, they were paralysed by fear, while myself and Gron fought this Glorious battle! But even without those cowards we had him, I was standing my ground and taking all the hits troll can give. With my skills I can easily take those hits indefinitely, and Gron was bravely mincing the troll from the side. But then I felt a traitorous spell on my back...it was none other, but the little witch Yurei that joined our group recently. She finally have shown her true colours. She didnt want to protect good citizens of Trinity, she was on the side of the foul monsters! After her distracting and cowardly attack, I lost concentration for the second, and damn beast was able to land a critical blow on my helmet.

Luckily, I survived, but while I was unconscious, monster was able to escape and rejoined his army. The village is now in even bigger danger, all because of those cowards and damn witch traitor. But dont worry, captain, everything is not lost yet. I might still fix all this mess. I may have the means to bind the witch talent, so she wont be able to backstab us again, should be a good temporary measure to prevent her from interfering. And about the Troll, we might have another...less reliable measure to...redirect his horde. Looks like there is other place, more favourable for them, but it is inhabited by the predator, that Trolls horde finds to problematic to deal with. I know this measure is unreliable, and horde might return even stronger next time, but this is all I can do with my current crews force. We had our chance, but we wasted it all, because of the cowards and traitors.

Ill try to retrain the cowards, and see what can be done about the witch. But this is just to much work to be done in one day, Currently, I am not able to defeat the horde with this lousy crew.

That Red man is a criminal. We made contact with the villagers and learnt the sole alledged criminal act the 'monsters' had made was a theft of some decorative wood. We didnt take any time to verify this and we went straight to get their side of the story. He's been constantly spouting anti-non-human sentiments advocating genocide, and In the middle of diplomacy with the peacful troll who led the non-human refugees fleeing some bad lions he attempted to backstab and murder them. This could have got us all killed by the kobolds, goblins, and the nice, gigantic two headded troll Ted. I couldn't let such a criminal act of assault pass, so I did what a guardsman should and protected the innocent being attacked... Once I disabled him with an aimed concussive blast, I of course immediately ran up to the huge, huge troll and stood in front of the two citizens who initiated the assault, and got the nice troll to calm down, and let me tended their wounds. This alone may be grounds for an assualt trial against Red, but he has since, while I slept, placed a magical... bad thingy on me! He told me when I woke! I cant cast any magic at him to defend myself. If I try i feel sick. And I can't protect innocents from him if he tries to murder them in front of me again! This is magicasl assault... on a minor! I want you to punish this criminal!

Yurei Mortisfillia, ward of the church of Torm, daughter of the sisterhood of Yondalla's chalice.

Jenela, Good news! Although perhaps some bad as well, but nothing to concern you. I have become a full-fledged guardsman and have earned coin and honors and the loan of a magnificent sword!The Lord of War smiles upon us, although I have trouble interpreting His wishes sometimes. My unit seems of two minds, which is a problem. I was tempted to show my current wealth to your father but I think I should parlay it for even greater gain so he cannot possibly look down upon me when the time comes.I look to seeing you again, as soon as possible. Gron